is a Japanese artist. He is best known for collaborating extensively with video game director Hideo Kojima as the lead character and mechanical designer, and art director, for most of his games, including the entirety of the Metal Gear Solid franchise and the Death Stranding duology.
Biography
Shinkawa was born in Hiroshima on 25 December 1971. He began working at Konami after graduating from Kyoto Seika University. He first worked as a debugger for the PC-98 version of Policenauts. He moved on to serve as the art director for later console ports of the game, and as the lead character and mecha designer for Metal Gear series, working alongside Hideo Kojima.
In his work, Shinkawa was inspired by anime and manga artists like Yoshikazu Yasuhiko and Yoshitaka Amano, and western artists such as Frank Miller, Aubrey Beardsley and Willy Pogany.
Works
Video games
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Year
! Title
! Role
|-
|1994
|Policenauts
|Mechanical design
|-
|1998
|Metal Gear Solid
|Art director, character design, mechanical design
|-
|2000
|Metal Gear: Ghost Babel
|Illustrator
|-
|rowspan="2" |2001
|Zone of the Enders
|Mechanical design
|-
|Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
|Art director, character design, mechanical design
|-
|2003
|Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner
|Art director, mechanical design
|-
|rowspan="2" |2004
|Fu-un Shinsengumi
|Illustrator
|-
|Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
|Art director, character design, mechanical design
|-
|2005
|Fu-un Bakumatsu-den
|Illustrator
|-
|2006
|Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops
|Character design
|-
|2008
|Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
|rowspan="2" |Art director, character design, mechanical design
|-
|2010
|Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker
|-
|2013
|Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance
|Character concept design
|-
|2014
|Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes
|rowspan="2" |Art director, character design, mechanical design
|-
|2015
|Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
|-
|2017
| Call of Duty: Black Ops III - Zombies Chronicles
|Illustrator
|-
|rowspan="2" |2019
|Left Alive
|Character design
|-
|Death Stranding
|rowspan="2" |Art director, character design, mechanical design
|-
|2025
|Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
|}
Other works
Novels
- Urban Hercules (illustrations)
- Metal Gear Solid (cover illustration)
- Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker (cover and interior illustrations)
- Metal Gear Solid Substance I: Shadow Moses (cover illustration)
- Metal Gear Solid Substance II: Manhattan (cover illustration)
- Metal Gear Solid: The Phantom Pain (cover illustration)
- Point of Impact (cover illustration, 2013 Fusosha Mystery edition)
Films
- Godzilla: Final Wars (monster and mecha designs)
- Pacific Rim (Poster design, Japanese release)
Toys
- Frame Arms/Frame Arms Girl (mecha/character design for Byakko)
- Project M (mecha/character designer for Takara Tomy)
Trading cards
- Magic: The Gathering – Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty (Satoru Umezawa)
- Magic: The Gathering – Special Guest: Yoji Shinkawa Secret Lair (Phyrexian Metamorph, Tezzeret the Seeker, Skullclamp, Solemn Simulacrum)
References
Bibliography
- The Art of Metal Gear Solid
- The Art of Metal Gear Solid 2
- The Art of Metal Gear Solid 1.5
- The Art of Metal Gear Solid: The Original Trilogy
- Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots: Master Art Work
- Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker: Official Art Works
- The Art of Metal Gear Solid V
- Visual Works of Anubis: Zone of the Enders
- The Art of Yoji Shinkawa Volumes 1-3